How hard can it be to get a starter to work? I have a new crate 350 im ready to fire in my model A. Bought a flexplate for a 75 Camaro with a 350 and a matching starter. 5 different starters from 2 different parts stores so far and the bendix locks up on the flexplate every time. I've gone from no shims to shimmed out so far it doesnt engage. I've used the search function and read every post about starter problems and still no luck. It seems like the teeth on the starter are bigger than the teeth on the flexplate and are jamming up. Any help would be great, absolutely stumped on this one.
Are the bolt holes in the starter straight across or staggered? Sounds like you've got the big flexplate and the starter for the small flexplate (straight across). Larry T
Its the staggered bolt starter, along with the 14 inch flexplate. Im wondering if the ring gear somehow ended up being a different pitch? My usual parts guy says in the late 80s they switched to a different pitch on the gear.
i know your problem... your running a sbc .. put in a bbf or a mopar and you'll be ahead of the game, and you wont have a boring ride.
A n 86 up flywheel wont bolt up to a 2 piece seal crank, so this is most likely not you problem unles its a cheap one welded wrong. Ive seen this. If your sure you have the right starter {3510} i would try 2 things, disconect everything but the bat cable and jump the inside pole on the solinoid manually{carful!} just to make sure you dont have power backfeeding while starting it,{slim chance} i would only shim one bolt at a time thus tipping the starter into or out of the flywheel should have 40 to 60 thou between the gears while engaged, a fat paper clip works well if you bend it into an l take the solinoid of and engage the drive by hand to check it if yu read the instructions with your starter itll explain, also make sure your solinoid isnt wired wrong or on upside down i had this happen on a new harley starter with a delco solinoid,it was on upside down the large poles were backwards,thats all i can think of but remember when somthin funny is goin on-somphthing funny is going on, ya dig?
Oh yeah , make sure your using the right bolts, with about a quarter inch of the shank into the block this is what lines everything up, dont use hardware store bolts!
There is lots of info on the web but I will condense it down to the important points. (i)you have the correct starter for the flexplate/flywheel . (ii) You use ONLY SBC starter bolts and nothing else. (iii) When the starter is bolted home correctly the head of the bolts should be sitting in a groove in the starter nose body. Look carefully at the starter and you see what i mean. (iv) The pinion gear must have at least 1/8" clearance when it is at rest from the face of the ring rear ( use a 1/8th Drill as a gauge) .If it is too close it will eat the ring gear or jam. (v) You must have clearance between the bottom of the ring gear teeth and the top of the pinion teeth when the pinion is fully out and engaged ( lever it out so you can slip a paper clip wire into the mesh part of the teeth .if it doesn't go you are too close) . Too much clearance is not a bad thing but the load on the teeth will soon destroy it. (vi) too much clearance or too little clearance makes the starter noisy . That is your first symptom. Too little clearance is usually a sign of the block being line bored so the crank moves up reducing the depth in the starter pinion ring /gear mesh. I do the starter fit up before the trans is fitted,you can then do it accurately and prevent problems because you can see if the pinion is meshing correctly. Just bolting a starter on a chev won't work because of the shit house quality standards .
Appreciate all the info, I cant believe what a major pain this turned into. I've tried every possible combination of shims, on all 5 different starters. flywheel is on the right way, along with the correct starter bolts. Tried 2 3510 starters, along with 3 other chevy starters. With no shims I cant get the bendix to engage the ring gear at all. Once I start shimming it will engage the ring gear, but not disengage, all the way to not being able to turn the motor at all. I'm really thinking the wrong ring gear has been welded to the flexplate. The engine is a new GM crate motor, so Im thinking the crank should be good and not been align bored.
If you look in the GM Performance parts catalog, or go to your chevy dealer with the crate motor p/n you can get the correct flywheel and starter new from GM. Not cheap but if you can afford the motor you can afford the rest.
sounds like the starter needs to be shimmed from the nose.. i got this on one of the prostarter mini-starters, i had to shim the starter between the starter and the aluminum mount.. if not it hit the flywheel. first time i've ever had to do this in over twenty years messing with a smallblock chev.. i think its because the chinese manufacturing is starting to come into play.
The best explaination for these "mystery issues" with sbc starters is that the nose of the TQ is against the crankshaft, when the flexplate bolts are tightened the flexplate is DEFORMED toward the back (like a dish) causing improper engagement/disengagement of the drive with relation to the ring gear. a 1/8" thick washer between the flexplate and the torque converter will fix this issue. DON'T DISCOUNT THIS ANSWER till you check it out!! My brother in law had MAJOR problems with this, he tried every possible combination with no results. Turns out the problem "went away" with the installation of a new TQ, saw this explaination later and it all came together.... Anyone ever takea tranny off that had these washers between the TQ and flexplate? hmmm.
39 all Ford, I went and unbolted the torque converter and put in some washers as you suggested. Still the same. I went to my local electrical rebuilder, explained my problem and bought his "fix", a mini starter that does the exact same thing as the other 5 starters I've tried. Locking up on the ring gear. I'm thinking either the flexplate drive gear is wrong, or the block is machined wrong for the starter placement. Gonna sleep on it tonite, and consider pulling the motor tomorrow and taking a good look at everything.
I ve had this same problem before .Chevrolet has a couple of different offsets on the nose cone of starter. I lucked out cause I have a supply of junk starters around. TRY DIFFERENT YEAR STARTERS.In the lot I had 3 different pitches
shit,,,, I thought I was on to something... I have to re-think the whole situation. It seems like everytime I hear about this issue the problems start with a GMPP block... my brother in law says his was a new "zz4" block used as a base for his crate. He tried all kinds of stuff. The final solution was when he dogged the end of the block real bad and hat to have the hole welded up with nickle rod, redrilled, and re-tapped. He put a new TQ on same time, but maybe it was moving the mounting point of the starter a little. He burned through a shit load of starters and flexplates..... a whole lot in just a little time and a few miles... from the cheap stuff to top quality stuff.
Since changing starters doesn't seem to help, how about trying a good, used flexplate that already has some clearance "built in". You can usually change them without completely removing the transmission. Larry T
Go to your local wrecking yard. Purchase (or pull) a used flexplate for a 70's SBC. It should only cost you a couple bucks. Hold said flexplate against suspect one. If they're different, there's your problem. If not, I'd suspect a miss-drilled block. Hope this helps!
dont think that you are the first person with this problem.lots of people take and trade off their SBC starter for a rebuilt,BAD MANUVER that may be the end of a good running engine as it will eat so many starters that they will finally have to junk the vehicle I had this punishment inflicted upon myself by a customer and its not a pretty situation
Don't know if this is pertinent or even relevant to your situation but: Many years ago I had a 68 Chevelle with a HP 327 engine I bought from a friend.After I got it running I had some serious problems with my starter.It would eat up pinion gears about every 3 weeks.Finally had to replace the flywheel ring gear.Still had the same problem. Talking about it one day with a friend of mine who worked in a parts store and he knew the solution.Turns out there was a listing for a HP 327 with a 12"clutch that had a separate starter from all the other #'s.Bought one and installed it;problem solved!Seems like the ring gear I bought at the time(mid-70's)was a 168 tooth gear.Just my twopence.
I had a simliar problem. Went thru 3 "rebuilt" Chevy starters, shimming them as per the instructions and they would all hang up. Finally sprang for a factory new starter and the new one worked like a champ. Don't think i will ever use a rebuilt one again. They often machine the starter mounting surface during the rebuild, so even with shims they won't work.
The ZZ4 based engine in my '33 has the 'large' flexplate w/weight' and GM mini starter and bought NEW GM bolts. (Was told the starter fits v6 thru BB in late models) been going for over 2 years now. Absolutely zero problems. This is like the one I use but I got mine at a "recycler" ........... http://discount-starter-alternator....froogle&utm_medium=organic&utm_source=froogle
I feel your pain. I have a collection of starters for my BBC. Finally fixed it by shimming only one bolt which angled it in just enouph. Good luck.
I've see two consistant issues with rebuilt Chev starters that come from parts houses Lack of lubrication on the bushings and the milling or sanding down of the mating surface that meets the block. Poking around in the garage the other night after reading another one of "my starter won't work right on my 350" threads I checked the shank of standard and metric starter bolts with a caliper and figured out that there is several thousandths difference. My first thought was that you may be using standard bolts rather than the special GM starter bolts. my second thought is that you may have a metric endframe with the 3/8 bolts. The mini starter not working any better somewhat precludes that. That takes us back to either the flexplate having problems or the index in the starter bolt holes in the block being off.
ok this is exactly what i spoke of before, atleast what i had to do... you need to shim the starter away from the nose or aluminum mount on the pro-starter..i'm not talking about the shimming the starter away from the block, shimming the starter body forward is what i'm saying i guess. you should have a shim that come with it
Heres my update, The new mini starter from my local guy worked out. I had to shim it a little bit, but it sounds ok and disengages when it should. 5 rebuilds from 2 different places and all crap. I'm thinking the combination of new block, and flex plate were too tight for tolerences to allow for any slop in a rebuilt starter built to "loose" tolerances. Thanks for all the help everyone! Got to finally fire it tonite.
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